Some 2,000 volunteers and officials fanned out until 1 am, counting the bodies huddled in doorways and surveying those awake about their housing and health problems. Rail workers counted those sheltering at metro stations.

Taking her cue from similar initiatives in New York, Brussels and Athens, Hidalgo hopes this snapshot of reality will lead to better policies to help those living in indignity as the city passes them by.

Heartbreak

Early figures will be released next week ahead of the full census next month.

But what the figures won`t show is the human misery behind them.

Welcome to the Hotel California, a stocky man slurred from his damp mattress near the lush Buttes Chaumont park.

Barefoot as he huddled by a warm air vent, Danilo, a Croatian Serb who fought in the 1990s Balkan wars, gave his age as 44. But he looked a decade older.

Beside him lay a friend with a badly bruised face, the pain numbed by alcohol.

Danilo`s is the story of a life spun out of control. An electrician who once worked for Siemens in Germany installing hospital machines, he moved to France two years ago after a painful divorce.

Irregular work dried up. He spends his days drinking on his mattress and jovially greeting the neighbours.

Spring will come and I will change my life, he said. He pulled out a large silver cross from beneath his jumper.

I`m asking him for a little helping hand, he said, nodding heavenwards.

Disconnect

Ruth Owen, policy coordinator at the EU federation of homeless organisations FEANTSA, said rough sleeping had soared in Paris since the financial crisis, a phenomenon seen in other European cities like London, Dublin and Athens.

On a basic level, it`s due to house prices rising faster than incomes, she said, adding that despite France having the strongest housing rights in Europe, this doesn`t always amount to much.

An estimate by statistics agency INSEE put France`s national homeless count at 141,500 in 2012, but charities say this has likely rocketed due to a housing crunch and the migrant crisis.